Glove with Abrasive Surface Cover

ABSTRACT

The inventive subject matter is directed toward a glove having a hand receiving opening and a sealing mechanism that substantially seals the hand receiving opening. Where the sealing mechanism has an abrasive surface, such as when hook and loop fasteners are engaged, a non-abrasive material could be utilized that covers the abrasive surface during use.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/970063, filed Oct. 20, 2004. The instant application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/441754 filed Feb. 11, 2011. Both applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. These and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention is gloves.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is common for insects, arachnids, and other pests to crawl into gloves, shoes, and other clothing articles. This is especially prevalent with gloves because the finger areas provide a small dark space that pests find a suitable place in which to live.

In order to avoid coming into contact with a pest, people generally shake out or at least visually examine their gloves or other articles of clothing. Because pests can lodge themselves deep into the finger areas of a glove, shaking and visually inspecting may prove to be inadequate. Sometimes people will stomp on or otherwise try to press on the outside of the glove in order to find out whether a pest is inside. For some pests, this may work but for others, it is also inadequate especially if the pest locates itself in an area that is resistant to stomping.

Of course, one could enclose his gloves in a sealable plastic bag, suitcase, or other sealable storage item, but this is time consuming and moreover the item is likely to be hidden from view by the storage item.

Thus, there is a need for new devices and methods directed toward preventing pest infestation into gloves.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a glove having a hand receiving opening and a sealing mechanism that substantially seals the hand receiving opening. As used herein, an “opening” is any opening that receives the digits of a hand while the glove is in use, whether the opening be located at the bottom end of a glove, or some few centimeters from the bottom of the glove. As used herein, a “glove” is an item of clothing, other than a mitten, that covers all of the hand and fingers which allows independent movement of the fingers.

Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a glove with a sealing mechanism comprised of hook and loop material.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of an alternative glove with a sealing mechanism comprised of a zipper.

FIG. 3 is a schematic of a portion of an alternative glove with a sealing mechanism comprised of a zip seal.

FIG. 4 is a schematic of a glove having a sealing mechanism on the outside surface of the glove.

FIG. 5 is a plan front view of an exemplary glove having an abrasive surface cover.

FIG. 6 is a plan rear view of the glove of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the bottom of the glove of FIG. 5 with the sealing mechanism engaged.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the bottom of the glove of FIG. 5 with the sealing mechanism disengaged.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the bottom of the glove of FIG. 5 with a flap folded over an abrasive surface within the glove.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring first to FIG. 1, a glove 100 has an inner collar made up of an upper portion 140 and a lower portion 160. The upper portion comprises a strip of hook material 110 and the lower portion comprises a strip of loop material 120 (e.g. Velcro™). In order to show both the hook and loop materials, the glove is shown with the upper portion 140 of the inner collar area folded out. Arrow 150 shows the direction in which the upper portion 140 will be moved toward the lower portion 160 when the glove is in its normal configuration. Note that a defined “collar area” is not a requirement of the inventive subject matter and that “collar” is used to refer to the portion of the glove furthest away from the tips of the fingers.

Here, a sealing mechanism is comprised of a strip of hook material 110 and a strip of loop material 120 arranged on the inner surface of the hand receiving area 130. It will be recognized by one of skill in the art that hook and loop material is the generic name for the commonly used trademark Velcro™. An inherent characteristic of this type of sealing mechanism is that it can be substantially sealed and re-sealed numerous times without replacing any of the constituent materials. “Substantially seals” means sealing that is sufficient to prevent entry of most insects, arachnids, and other common pests. More specifically, the sealing mechanism prevents entry of pests to the extent that the sealing mechanisms proposed herein are capable. It should be understood that some sealing mechanisms will seal more completely than others, but the overall inventive concept includes all sealing mechanisms that can prevent entry of a typical household size spider, scorpion, and cockroach. In addition to Velcro™, a sealing mechanism may additionally or alternatively include a zipper, a zip seal, and a reinforced fold. Some gloves may utilize more than one sealing mechanism. For purposes of comparison, gloves that utilize elastic or draw string around the hand entry portion are not considered to have a sealing mechanism because they do not substantially seal the hand receiving opening.

FIG. 2 depicts a glove 200 having a zipper 210. The zipper 210 shown here is partially zipped (i.e. partially sealed) and therefore a portion of the hand receiving area 220 and the unzipped teeth 230 can be observed.

It is generally contemplated that the hand receiving area has an unsealed diameter of approximately 10 cm although other diameters may be appropriate so long as a hand can fit through the opening when the sealing mechanism is completely unsealed.

FIG. 3 shows a collar area 300 of a glove that has a zip seal 305 type sealing mechanism. A zip seal by itself is known in the field that includes sandwich bags; however, to the inventor's knowledge such a sealing mechanism has never been used for the applications described herein. The zip seal 305 in FIG. 3 is shown partially sealed and therefore has a sealed portion 310 and an unsealed portion 312. The zip seal 305 works by compressing an opposing lip 320 into a grove 330.

While zip seal 305 is located at the bottom most portion of the collar area (identified by numeral 340), it is contemplated that the zip seal 305 can be located along the inside portion of collar. If the zip seal is located along the inside surface of the collar (i.e. that surface closest to the wearer's hand), it is preferable for the zip seal to be located relatively close to the bottom 340 of the collar area so that there is relatively little inside area left unsealed.

FIG. 4 shows a glove 400 having hook and loop material 410 mounted on the outside of the glove. In this embodiment of the inventive subject matter, the glove is designed as to be sealed inside out to preserve forensic matter that may have been collected on the outside of the glove. This embodiment contemplates that the glove can be used for forensics or other activities that require preservation of evidence. Another application includes sealing hazardous material onto a glove and in this respect it is contemplated that sealable gloves may be worn by surgeons and other doctors.

Functionally, the glove 400 is removed from the users hand by pulling the outside of the glove over the inside thereby leaving the glove in a substantially inside out state. The glove is then sealed and the forensic evidence or other material on the outside of the glove is preserved. In this case, it is not necessary that the sealing mechanism be resealable and therefore other types of sealing mechanisms are contemplated including, most especially, those that have a strip of adhesive that is revealed by peeling back a protective cover.

FIGS. 5-9 shows an exemplary glove with a hook and loop opening and sealing mechanism. FIGS. 5-7 show the glove with the hook and loop opening and sealing mechanism engaged, while FIG. 8 shows the glove with the hook and loop opening and sealing mechanism disengaged. Since a wearer using the glove of FIG. 5 may find the hook portion of the hook and loop sealing mechanism abrasive or otherwise chaffing, a fold-over tab in FIG. 9 is provided that covers the hook portion of the hook and loop sealing mechanism. In this manner, the abrasive surface of the hook portion of the sealing mechanism could be covered when a user wishes to wear the glove, and could then be uncovered when the user wishes to seal the opening of the glove to prevent any bugs, animals, or debris from entering the opening of the glove.

Other glove embodiments that cover abrasive surfaces of gloves are contemplated. For example, multiple flaps could be engaged to cover both the hook and the loop surfaces of the hook and loop fastener, or a weakened score line could be introduced just above the hook and loop fastener to facilitate a user in folding the outer surface of the glove inward to cover the hook and loop fastener while the glove is in use. In an alternative embodiment, the flap folds in the opposing direction such that the flap folds to cover the abrasive surface as the hand enters the hand-receiving opening of the glove. In alternative embodiments, the opposite side of the flap could be covered with loops so as to engage the abrasive hooks. Flaps that cover other abrasive surfaces and/or sealing mechanisms are also contemplated, for example a flap that covers zipper teeth, or a flap that covers an indent that matches opposing detents (i.e. buttons and holes, screws and threaded holes, zip-loc-bag type zippers with matching troughs)

As used herein, and unless the context dictates otherwise, the term “coupled to” is intended to include both direct coupling (in which two elements that are coupled to each other contact each other) and indirect coupling (in which at least one additional element is located between the two elements). Therefore, the terms “coupled to” and “coupled with” are used synonymously.

It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced. Where the specification claims refers to at least one of something selected from the group consisting of A, B, C . . . and N, the text should be interpreted as requiring only one element from the group, not A plus N, or B plus N, etc. 

1. A glove comprising: a hand receiving opening; a sealing mechanism that substantially seals the hand receiving opening, wherein the sealing mechanism has an abrasive surface; and a non-abrasive material that covers the abrasive surface when a hand is engaged within the hand-receiving opening.
 2. The glove of claim 1, wherein the sealing mechanism comprises hooks on one side of the opening and loops on an opposing side of the opening.
 3. The glove of claim 2, wherein the non-abrasive material is configured to fold over the hooks of the sealing mechanism.
 4. The glove of claim 3, wherein the non-abrasive material folds over the abrasive surface while a hand enters the hand-receiving opening.
 5. The glove of claim 1, wherein the non-abrasive material comprises cloth.
 6. The glove of claim 1, wherein the non-abrasive material couples to the abrasive surface.
 7. The glove of claim 1, further comprising a second non-abrasive material that covers a second abrasive surface of the sealing mechanism when a hand is engaged within the hand-receiving opening. 